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Friday, 22 May 2015

The Red Shoes, my take on Mary Gail has been finished and is at the framers as I type. I enjoyed every stitch of this bright and cheery sampler. I used AVAS and stitched it over 2 on 40ct Havana. The colour of the linen is much more gingery, the camera flash has bleached the colour out.

Martha Allis - The Scarlet Letter

I have started Martha Allis which is now available from the Scarlet Letter. She is a beauty. I am using LL 36ct Vintage Light Examplar and AVAS.The moment I saw Martha I had to have her for my collection but I learnt the hard way and just missed out on her at auction as I had left a commission bid. Luckily I traced her to Witney Antiques after the sale and managed to secure her.

Martha's history is fascinating and I had much enjoyment researching her both online and in the records office.

On the
16th of June 1755 Martha
Allis daughter of Quakers - John and Anna Allis was born in Shadd Thames in the
Parish of Saint John’s in Southwark.

George II sat on the English throne and Samuel Johnson’s first dictionary had just been published.

Martha
was descended through her maternal line from Merchants who had escaped
religious persecution in Europe in the beginning of the 18th Century
and settled in London.

By the time that Martha was born Quakers had been able to practice their
religion in England openly for sixty odd years and during
this time had begun to be recognized for their integrity in social and economic
matters. Many Quakers went into manufacturing or commerce as previously they had not been allowed to earn academic
degrees.

At
the same time Quakers were also becoming more concerned about social issues and
becoming more active in society at large. One
such issue was slavery, another issue that became a concern of Quakers was the
treatment of the mentally ill.

They also believed in the spiritual
equality of women, who were allowed to take a far more active role than had
ordinarily existed.

We
can expect Martha’s family to have be hard working, affluent, religious and
charitable. Martha and her mother would have been equals with her father and
brother. Martha would have received an education.

In the 21st century Shad Thames is a historic riverside
street with Tower Bridge (built 1886) at its west end and running along the
south side of the River Thames in London. At the time of Martha’s birth it was
described as:-

Shad Thames –
exhibits an uninterrupted series of wharves, warehouses, mills and factories,
on both sides of the narrow and crowded roadway. The buildings on the northern
side are contiguous to the river, and in the gateways and openings in
these we witness the busy scenes and
the mazes of the shipping which pertain to such a spot. “

It
was a major area for brewing beer which could be transported easily across the
river to the City.

Martha’s
father John Allis and Hagger Allis were brewers at Horslydown Old Stairs and
were listed in “The New Complete Guide to All Persons Who Have Any Trade or
Concern City of London” issued in 1770 the year that Martha stitched her
sampler.

It
is interesting to note that the famous English brewing company Courage was
founded by John Courage in 1787 following his purchase of John and Hagger’s
brewery for the sum of £616.13.11d paid by cheque on December 20th
1787.

On
April 18th 1780 at the late age of 25 Martha married Nathaniel
Hartland at the Friends Meeting House at Horslydown London.

The
Hartland and Allis families were closely interconnected with numerous marriages
between cousins in generations before and after Martha and Nathaniel union and
we can presume that they grew up knowing each other.

Nathaniel
and Martha Hartland lived in Church Street Tewkesbury which overlooked the Abbey
(see plan of area by Nathaniel in 1807)

They had eight children - John Allis,
Reeve, Anna, Nathaniel, (No Given Name), Nathaniel, Sarah and William.

Their
last child William was born on September 15th 1797 in Church Street
Tewkesbury.

Martha
died the same day as giving birth to William at the age of only 42 and her baby
William 3 months later.

The
Friends Meeting House in Tewkesbury

In 1803 Nathaniel married his second
wife, Rebecca Wilkins, in a Quaker ceremony in Cheltenham. Nathaniel went on to
found a bank in 1809

Nathaniel died in 1830, and in the
following year his eldest son John Allis, a banker like his father, was married
at Tewkesbury Abbey. His bride was his first cousin, Anna Maria Allis, daughter
of Martha’s brother Jacob Allis.

Martha’s sampler probably passed on
Nathaniel senior’s death to his son Nathaniel junior who also followed his
father into banking. He was married twice, first (in 1816) to Ann Summers
Harford, daughter of Ebbw Vale Iron master Richard Summers Harford. Nathaniel
and Ann had a son, Alfred Harford Hartland, born in Worcestershire in 1817. Ann
must have died in childbirth, or shortly afterwards: she was buried at Evesham
in 1818, aged 24.

Nathaniel junior married his second
wife Eliza Dixon, daughter of physician Thomas Dixon and his wife Sarah, in
Evesham, in July 1825. Nathaniel and Eliza had five children: Theresa Gales,
born in 1827; Frederick Dixon, 1830; Emily Rosa, 1834; Anna Louisa, 1842; and
Ernest, 1843. The first three of these were born in Evesham, the last two in
Charlton Kings, near Cheltenham, where the Hartland family can be found living
– at ‘Oaklands’, together with half a dozen servants – in 1841, 1851 and
1861.

Sir Frederick Dixon-Hartland, M.P.

Nathaniel Hartland died in 1866 at
the age of 75. His son Frederick Dixon-Hartland (1832 – 1902) would become
an antiquary, banker and Conservative Member of Parliament for Evesham and baronet.

It is recorded on the reverse of Martha’s
sampler that it passed in June 1920 to Anna Louisa Coulson nee Hartland, Sir
Fredrick Dixon-Hartland’s sister and her Granddaughter.

Anna had married Walter John Coulson
an eminent Harley Street surgeon in 1862 but they had no children.

In 1921 at the time of writing her
will it is recorded that Anna was staying
at Ridgebourne on the Hergest Estate in Kington. Hergest was the home of
her sister Emily Rosa Banks nee Hartland.

Anna’s will and subsequent codicials
left many bequests but the bulk of a considerable fortune including furniture
and personal effects went to two spinster nieces – Maude Ethel and Mary
Constance Coulson.

They in turn left their estates to the
same nieces and great nieces and it is believed that the sampler passed into
the ownership of Margaret (Peggy) Balliol Scott who became a Beagley upon
marriage.

Peggy Beagley died in 1996 in Mersham
Kent.

The sampler reappears when it is sold at Auction in
2015 by Dreweatts in Newbury and was purchased by Joy Jarrett of Whitney
Antiques.

I hope you have enjoyed finding out more about Martha and her sampler's journey down the generations.

I hope Martha Allis will now stay with me at Trewoon for many decades to come where it will be love and admired every day.

Sunday, 10 May 2015

This
month we have a special treat for you, two interviews in one! We hear from both Vickie and Maegan of
NeedleWorkPress on how they started their stitching journeys, how they came to
work together and about their loves for needlework.

First,
we learn how Vickie and Maegan came to be partners in NeedleWorkPress…

Vickie has been
dabbling in needlework design for a decade or so, but when her son Patrick
married Maegan, she inherited a family member whose talent, creativity and
organization added a new energy and direction to NeedleWorkPress. One day Maegan mentioned that she had stitched
a gift for Niles (Vickie’s husband). Vickie
was excited to see it; but Maegan mentioned her reluctance since it wasn’t
exactly the kind of stitching Vickie did. Well, low and behold, while the piece was an
amazing pictorial representation of a fisherman on a dock, surrounded by his
faithful dog, both looking off into the water and forest. It had to have hundreds of color changes to
create the realistic scene. The rest, as
they say, is history! Since then, Maegan
has had the opportunity not only to put her skills to work reproducing antique
samplers, but also to spend some time learning the needlework trade at The Attic
in Mesa, AZ Both of us are incredibly honored and humbled every time a fellow
sampler enthusiast stitches one of our projects. Bringing antiques to life in the twenty-first
century is our pleasure!

How
old were you when you first picked up a needle and who taught you to
stitch?

Vickie: Although I did miscellaneous embroidery
throughout childhood, I didn’t look at needlework seriously until my mother took
me to the most amazing needlepoint shop when I was 13. The shop was tucked under an ivy-covered roof
on the second story of an old inn. (It
has since been renovated, and the Royal Palms now houses one of our favorite
restaurants.) My eyes couldn’t believe
what I saw when the door opened: Wonderful, yarns in every color imaginable
from bright to muted, and hand-painted canvases. I was in awe and could not get enough. As for technique, my mother wasn’t very
patient (but she was precise), so I was pretty much self-taught. Alas, I was allergic to wool. So, sometime in my 20’s, my passion became
cross stitch. My needle has been busy
ever since!

Vickie could not resist changing the house on Colonial Welcome to look like her own.

Maegan: I don’t
remember how old I was, maybe 6 or 7 when I picked up my first needle. I am very close with my Grandma Shirley and
often stayed the night at her house. She
cross stitched Christmas stockings for all of her grandchildren and almost always
had projects out at one end of her dining room table (it had the best light
with two walls of windows). I asked her
about it and she went to a bedroom, pulled out a little ornament kit and
explained the concept to me. It was my
first and only project until my early 20s, when I met my future husband and he
started bragging about his mother to me. I told him that I knew how to cross stitch! We decided that something stitched would be a
great gift to give his parents for Christmas from the two of us because it
would be meaningful. Well, two and a
half years later it was stitched and a year after that, framed.

What
was the first sampler that you stitched?

Vickie: Maureen
Appleton’s timeless “Colonial Welcome.”

Colonial Welcome - pictured to the right of the clock

Maegan: How Does My
Garden Grow by NeedleWorkPress. Vickie had stitched it

on perforated paper and
wanted it re-stitched on linen, so I did.

What
is your favorite time of day to stitch?

Vickie: I love the
morning light, but rarely do the early morning hours provide time to stitch. Although I’ve found lights I like, still haven’t
found THE perfect one. Finally had to
succumb to readers in recent years, too!

Maegan: I prefer to
stitch in natural sunlight. For me, that
means the afternoon as it comes in through my dining/living room window.

Do
you sit in a set place and what tools do you like to have on hand?

Vickie: Well, I wish I
had one place where I stitched and designed…but my husband reminds me that I
have multiple work stations all over the house. This means I don’t always have the exact tools
I need. However, tape measures, rulers,
scissors and needles are pretty much in every room.

Maegan: After writing
above about my childhood experiences with my Grandma stitching, it makes me
smile to admit that I too enjoy stitching at my dining room table. I am able to prop my feet up on an adjacent
chair and spread my chart out on a solid surface, which I prefer. I ALWAYS have my favorite pair of scissors
with me: my black Dovos!

Do
you use the stick and stab technique, or a sewing stitch?

Vickie: I love to
“sew” whenever possible. But I also like
stitching on perforated paper, so that means “stick and stab.”

Maegan: I can do the
“sewing” method of stitching, but it has never felt natural to me so I stick
and stab.

Do
you prefer to stitch in hand, or with a hoop or frame?

Vickie: Since I like
to “sew,” I typically stitch in hand. I
do enjoy some old hoops that can be anchored to tables.

Maegan: I almost
always start a new project with a hoop. Once
I have finished filling that area, I will move to stitching in hand. The only exception to this is my One Nation by
ByGone Stitches project that I started on 45c. I’m moving the hoop around on that project.

What
is your favorite linen and thread?

Vickie: Oh my, that’s
a tough one to answer! For reproduction
samplers, I usually prefer overdyed silks. There are SO MANY amazing choices out there.
For more primitive pieces, it’s overdyed cotton. And then there are the great overdyed perle cottons
for perforated paper. With linen, the
project determines the count and color. However,
personally I typically gravitate to darker colors that are warm and soft.

Maegan: My favorite
linen is anything overdyed and soft. I
like most counts as long as it isn’t above 40c. For threads, I prefer overdyes, but would be
smitten to stitch in either silk or cotton. For me, I am practical and it depends on the
project.

Have
you tried specialty stitches and do you have a favorite?

Vickie: Oh yes, and my
favorite is Algerian eye and variations of the eyelet stitch! Years ago I took an amazing class at Spirit of
Cross Stitch…and I still treasure my “doodle cloth” of specialty stitches.

Maegan: I have never
tried a specialty stitch. I would like
to though. In fact, I need to. The problem is that haven’t had a project yet
that has required me to. Someday…

When
did you discover the Scarlet Letter?

Vickie: Marsha has
been my hero from the very early days when she started researching antique
needlework and bringing us splendid reproductions. Going to the mailbox was ALWAYS a treat when
one of her catalog supplements arrived. Marsha’s
meticulous attention to detail and her passion are true joys and so very
inspiring! Her books A Stitch in Rhyme
and Animals from Early Samplers are favorites of mine!

Maegan: I discovered
the Scarlet Letter the first day I stepped into work at The Attic Needlework in
Mesa, AZ. I worked there for almost two
years and on that first day, there was a display in the front, right when you
walked in the door, and it was somewhat magical, which sounds corny, but it’s
true.

What
is your favourite period of sampler-making and why?

Vickie: Probably late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. While I appreciate the intricacy and precision
of more formal and elaborate samplers, I’m pretty partial to the more humble
samplers because of their simplicity and quaint charm.

Maegan: My favorite
period of sampler-making is the 17th century. I love the bold colors and the character like
depictions. I have a book called
“Samplers” by Donald King for the Victoria and Albert Museum and I love the
cover sampler. I believe that The
Essamplaire has reproduced it or one very similar to it. I enjoy how the flowers are so bright and
beautiful and the fact that there are bugs like the caterpillar.

Which
designs appeal to you the most?

Vickie: Alphabets are
my very favorite! Have been since
kindergarten when I carried a bookbag decorated with the ABC’s. Then I loved penmanship and eventually became
a writer…so, if it’s got an alphabet, I’m drawn to it. Also, since my husband
is a dairy vet, I’m especially drawn to samplers with cows, and other animals,
too! Oh, and houses! They capture my heart as well. A good verse is a plus, too. Although I prefer muted colors, there isn’t
any single color scheme that appeals to me. Motifs on Quaker sampler (and the alphabets,
of course) are pleasures to behold!

Maegan: I am drawn to
whimsy. My favorite sampler in our
collection is Jane Tindall. I love
everything about it. My second favorite
is Mary Moteshed – the girl, the dress, her shoes, and that verse! (The antique
now hangs over daughter Zoe’s crib.)

Mary Moteshed Antique sampler

Mary Moteshed Reproduction Sampler

Next
I am drawn to color, which is tricky because I like both bold colors and more
primitive colors. I have a Mexican
sampler in my living room that I can’t wait to reproduce (it’s been on the
short list for a couple years and keeps getting bumped because of it’s size). It has an upside down house, cows, a donkey,
diagonal borders, roses all over, ducks in the reeds and even a fly. It’s amazing for so many reasons. Third, I am drawn to borders. The border doesn’t have to be beautiful, just
fun and suited to the rest of the sampler. That doesn’t mean I like stitching borders, it
is just one of the first things I look at. I also like animals. I am not very into houses or people, but as I
said before, I LOVE the girl in Mary Moteshed’s sampler.

Has
working with reproduction samplers given you any new insight into the lives of
the girls and women in the 17-18-19th centuries that you did not realize
before?

Vickie: Most
definitely! Sometimes through research,
other times just a feeling! I definitely
feel connected to the girls, women and the occasional boy who stitched in
bygone days. Nothing is new under the
sun, so being able to recreate samplers with the advantages of technology we
have is a true fellowship with those who have gone before us. Crazy as it sounds, one time I started working
on an unfinished piece of needlework, and I had to have a friend do it, because
it just didn’t feel right.

A Parrot Pincushion reproduction

Maegan: Yes! It is
amazing to work so intimately with a piece when reproducing it. I cannot help but notice the materials, the varying
skill levels and even the verses that each girl stitched. When reproducing the sampler and looking at
every detail, it makes me smile and grunt when a girl is careless with her
stitching and there is no rhyme or reason as to why she stitched over so many
varying threads – sometimes it will be 2x2, 2x3 3x2, 2x1…and it goes on. When I work with the more skilled samplers, I
am amazed at the age of the girls and the ability to complete something so
beautiful. The time that each one of them
takes, whether skilled or less skilled, never ceases to amaze me either. I find it all remarkable.

How
do you display your stitched samplers? Do you frame them? Hang them
singularly or in groupings?

Vickie: Our home is a
gallery of sorts and we’ve pretty much run out of wall space. So, while most are framed hung, some are under
beds and in stacks; others are on loan to our lovely LNS, The Attic in Mesa,
AZ.

Maegan: I actually
don’t have any samplers that I have stitched hanging in my home. I didn’t start stitching them until I started working
with Vickie doing NeedleWorkPress and all of the samplers that I have stitched
and finished have been models; though I do have a bunch of unfinished samplers
that I would like to get framed and displayed in my home. The antiques that I have are hanging
throughout my house. I don’t have any
hanging in a group. They are all hung in
rooms and mixed with various pieces of other art; whether it be contemporary
prints, oil paintings by my husband’s great grandmother, posters, pictures, or
framed covers to antique books. I do
have a couple of samplers done on canvas with wool and silk that are unframed,
but still hanging.

Do
you collect antique samplers? Or have
any other collections special to you?

Vickie: Oh yes! I’m beginning to think it’s a sickness. Most are simple samplers that are affordable.
But the collecting doesn’t stop there! Needlework
tools, veterinary tools and all sorts of early paper ephemera are among the
treasures that decorate every corner of our country farm house.

Antique sampler wall

Maegan: I am SO
fortunate that Vickie has an amazing eye and collects samplers that I enjoy AND
even shares them with me. Because of
her, I have several antiques hanging throughout my house. I collect counted thread charts. It started
when I was working at The Attic. I saw
charts that I appreciated the designs of or thought were beautiful and I saw
charts go out of print. Now, even if it
isn’t one that I think I will stitch, I will purchase the chart as a piece of
art in its own right. (Vickie adds that with experience and a college
background in theater, Maegan has a fun collection of all sorts of masks.)

What
other types of hand work do you enjoy?

Vickie: When there’s
time, I enjoy paper crafts, blanket stitch on wool felt and basic jewelry
making. I gave up needlepoint because it
hurt my hands.

Maegan: I used to
paint. I haven’t done it—since
college—outside of a painting and wine night with some friends from church. I used to sew too. That is something that I
haven’t done much of since getting into cross stitch though. Having a daughter under two doesn’t allow for
a lot of “free” time.

Any
guilty secrets to confess?

Vickie: If I didn’t
eat and drink when I stitch, I wouldn’t stitch. Multi-tasking is a way of life for us, so I
always have a cup of hot tea or a tumbler of iced tea at my side. I have lost projects. You know the frantic “clean up before guests
arrive” scenario? Well, I’ve pushed
projects into closets only to discover them YEARS later. Sometimes they’re lost in my car…which I sort
of live in because of all the driving I do. When the boys were growing up, I ALWAYS had a
project in my car to complete on the road. I even changed verses to mark a point in time
that I stitched it.

Maegan: I am not the
best at keeping my stitching “pristine.” I have never spilled anything on the pieces
I’m working on, but I have been known to stitch above a dog lying on my lap. I also leave my current projects out, which
has caused an issue in the past with one of my dogs. Fortunately, nothing too bad has occurred from
my carelessness.

What
has been your worst needlework disaster?

Vickie: That’s a tough
one. Fortunately, not any true
disasters…I’ve left out a motif or forgotten a letter, but that’s about it. I do commiserate with those disasters, though,
as they’re always a fear!

Maegan: I think
everything I stitch has some sort of “mistake” in it. I just look at it as personalization. My biggest disaster recently though happened
when doing the hem stitch on the reproduction “W: A Mexican Band Sampler”. It was my first time and I am the type of
person who doesn’t test the water before jumping in, so I measured,
re-measured, and measured again and decided to just go for it and cut the
fabric. Well, when I went to fold it, I
realized that it was too short. I had to
stitch the piece I cut off back on and try again. It made me laugh. This happened on our model. I’m happy to say that you can’t tell at all from
the front and you can only tell on the back if you are looking for it. Answering one of the questions reminded me of
my first big disaster too. I was
stitching Posies from the Cottage, a reproduction of an antique purse, and left
the project out on my dining room table. Well, my dog Twain liked to jump up onto that
table when he was a puppy and he grabbed my overdyed thread and took it outside
and played with it in the yard and ate some. Vickie had to call all over asking friends to
bring their in-stock Gentle Arts Brethren Blue skeins to market so that we
could try to match dye lots. It was sort of a mess, but we lucked out.

If
you can pick just one, which is your favorite sampler that you stitched?
And why?

Vickie: I don’t even
know the name. It’s a simple alphabet
and heart sampler that I stitched for our 20th wedding anniversary in 1996. I bought it at a shop in Tennessee that’s now
closed and I know the chart is out of print, but I’ll include the photo anyhow,
since it means a lot to me.

Wedding Anniversary Sampler

I also THOROUGHLY enjoyed reproducing and stitching
a perforated paper sampler we call “How Does My Garden Grow”.

Maegan: My favorite
sampler that I have stitched and completed is one from our Minerva &
Friends collection. It is Minerva Ayliffe
1886. There are a bunch of cheerful
colors, it was a quick stitch, and I like the short and sweet verse: “Be kind
and affectionate one to another.”

Minerva Ayliffe antique sampler

Minerva Ayliffe Reproduction Sampler

What
Scarlet Letter sampler are you currently working on now? What do you most
enjoy about it?

Vickie: The Country
Life is a long-time WIP, largely because I started it on 28-count linen and
wish I had used a higher count. But,
I’m determined to finish it so I can make a bolster pillow for my bed. The subject matter is what drew me to the
piece. Ruthy Rogers is all kitted up
and ready to go when I have time. Love
that dress of hers!

A Country Life in progress

Maegan: I am currently
working on Spot Motif Embroidery. I
literally fell in love with it that first day at The Attic. I bought it and figured that I would stitch it
sometime, then my husband picked it out of my “collection” of charts to be the
birth sampler for our first born. Needless
to say, I haven’t finished it, but I will.

What
other hobbies or interests do you enjoy?

Vickie: Being a
grandmother is great fun! Family and
friends are at the top of my enjoyment list. I fall asleep every night reading a book,
magazine or newspaper. I still LOVE my
printed reading material. Niles and I
travel quite a bit—mostly across the US. So many hobbies and interests! The past several years we began our “Book of
Days” with the verse, “ I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I
want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, all
the friends I want to see.” -- John Burroughs

Maegan: With where I
am in life right now, my main interest lies with spending time with my family. We enjoy camping in the White Mountains,
spending an afternoon exploring local parks, or going to concerts – in local
parks as a family or with my husband and in-laws we check out “outlaw” country
and folk singers like Willy Nelson, Ian Tyson and John Prine. After family, I spend my time stitching and
reproducing antiques. If I can get into
a good book, I won’t put it down, but since reading the Game of Throne series
several years ago, I haven’t been able to get into a good book. Usually anything by James Patterson or Steven
King keeps me up at night though turning pages.

Vickie and Maegan

A
BIG Thank you to both Vickie and Maegan for sharing their story with us
all! It is wonderful to see your works,
and your antiques and reproductions.
Your journeys have melded together to form a perfect partnership! We look forward to seeing your Scarlet Letter
samplers projects and all of your future endeavors! To keep up with the works of NeedleWorkPress
please visit their site here!